As Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises, “If you want others to love you, you must first love others. If you benefit others, naturally they will benefit you. The cause and effect of karma is as simple as this. The Vajrasattva purification practice, which is more powerful than negative karma, can prevent you from experiencing the problems that negative karma would otherwise bring you. Thus, the practice of purification is one of the most important solutions to our problems and is extremely necessary, even for people who believe that we have only one life.”

For many of us, the new year signifies a time for reflecting on our past year and making aspirations to improve the actions of our body, speech and mind for the benefit of ourselves and others.

You can find a short Vajrasattva sadhana complete with a purification practice including the four opponent powers through the FPMT Foundation Store.

Additionally, the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive has collected and made available extensive advice on purification practices.

In the lam-rim, there’s some advice on how to get up early in the morning without being overwhelmed by sleep. Before getting into bed the night before, wash your feet while thinking of light. Try it; it works.